{"id":130530,"date":"2026-08-01T19:45:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=130530"},"modified":"2026-08-01T19:45:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:45:06","slug":"google-launches-satellite-image-ai-tool-alarming-researchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/","title":{"rendered":"Google launches satellite image AI tool, alarming researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON(National Times)- Google announced a new feature allowing Google Earth users to generate AI visualisations on top of the service\u2019s satellite imagery, sparking concerns from researchers and open-source intelligence experts about the potential for disinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u201ccreate image\u201d tool, rolled out on Thurs\u00adday, integrates Google\u2019s Nano Banana 2 image-generation technology to let users zoom into locations and build images in seconds based on Google Earth satellite, aerial and 3D-mapping data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company unveiled the feature as a way to \u201cvisualise history, create real estate plans and more\u201d. But disinformation researchers are warning it could enable bad actors to misuse Google Earth, a key resource for fact-checking and verification to create realistic geospatial fakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGoogle spent 20 years building the reference the world checks against,\u201d digital investigations expert Henk Van Ess wrote on Substack. \u201cToday it added a button that makes things up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe forgery does not have to look convincing on its own,\u201d Van Ess added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt inherits the credibility of the map it was born on.\u201d Brady Africk, a resea\u00adrch analyst at the American Enterprise Institute specialising in satellite ima\u00adgery analysis, said the Google Earth update \u201cmakes it easier to generate convincing fake satellite imagery that can spread quickly on\u00adline and mislead the public\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThese AI-generated fakes, growing more common, may also erode public trust in satellite imagery, and make the jobs of journalists and researchers more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a response on X, Google said images created with the feature incl\u00adude SynthID digital watermarks, invisible markers embedded in media generated using the company\u2019s artificial intelligence tools. Users can ask Google\u2019s Gemini chatbot if a SynthID is present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON(National Times)- Google announced a new feature allowing Google Earth users to generate AI visualisations on top of the service\u2019s satellite imagery, sparking concerns from researchers and open-source intelligence experts about the potential for disinformation. The \u201ccreate image\u201d tool, rolled out on Thurs\u00adday, integrates Google\u2019s Nano Banana 2 image-generation technology to let users zoom into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Google launches satellite image AI tool, alarming researchers - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Google launches satellite image AI tool, alarming researchers - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON(National Times)- Google announced a new feature allowing Google Earth users to generate AI visualisations on top of the service\u2019s satellite imagery, sparking concerns from researchers and open-source intelligence experts about the potential for disinformation. The \u201ccreate image\u201d tool, rolled out on Thurs\u00adday, integrates Google\u2019s Nano Banana 2 image-generation technology to let users zoom into [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-01T14:45:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-01T14:45:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-8-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/\",\"name\":\"Google launches satellite image AI tool, alarming researchers - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-8-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-01T14:45:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-01T14:45:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-8-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-8-1.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Google launches satellite image AI tool, alarming researchers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Google launches satellite image AI tool, alarming researchers - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130530\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Google launches satellite image AI tool, alarming researchers - Nation","og_description":"WASHINGTON(National Times)- Google announced a new feature allowing Google Earth users to generate AI visualisations on top of the service\u2019s satellite imagery, sparking concerns from researchers and open-source intelligence experts about the potential for disinformation. 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